Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A Children's Crusade That Just Might Work

Wow, no one likes the layout posts. I guess layout remains a mystery to many, huh?

Well, anyway Happy Halloween! This is the night we celebrate and relive the glorious Crusades.

If you want any candy from me, you better wear one of these costumes. No modern puffy stuff, ok?Think of who you could conquer with great outfits like this! Maybe you could march out and take back the Holy Cartoon Land of Los Angeles from the infidels!

It might be time to restore its ancient glory.

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Sneak Preview of My Pitch Blog!

Hey head over here and read my latest pitches in progress and drop a comment so I can impress an executive, ok?

You and Uncle Eddie make me regret the years of missed Halloweens because I was a Jehovah's Witness. You both will have to suffer my wrath. I am going to instruct the congregation near both of you to knock on your doors at 7am on Saturdays for the remainder of your lives. YOU THINK WORKING ON STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE WAS BAD ? TRY GETTING RID OF RELENTLESS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES !!!! BLAH HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good to see the Mickey mask is flame retardant. What's trick or treating without serial arson?

I was at a Halloween store the other day and remembered your post from a while back of all the cool/completely bizarre Halloween costumes... and yeah, looking at the stuff they had on offer was sort of depressing. One can only hope that the oldies will become retro-cool again like so many other things.

I like how some of these costumes are basically billboards for products instead of actually being anything to dress up as, I love it! The masks are what set these apart from the crap costumes these days, they're works of art. Thanks for all the great pics!

right now most of us are practicing basics construction thanks of that kick ass video you posted last week! also you where very specific about the best way to learn how to animate by copying bosko's animation. perhaps you could point us some way to approach this notes in practice

what happens to me now with the the notes is that i don't know exactly how to exercise them. would it work trying to do a short story where some characters interacts in a background and there try to use most of the principles your layout notes talks about? i think that would also imply doing the character design, writing, direct it, also do the animation of the characters and a lot more stuff for it but i know you always say to don't use our own characters yet, so i'm not sure if that would be the best way to go...

it would be great if you could talk to us about your "application" class from your ideal school that i ask you about the other day. there we could know the way you think is the best to apply what we learn with the construction exercises, copying animation and with the layout notes. i hope i'm not asking a lot!!

Too sad we don't have Halloween here but we have something like that. It's called Sint Maarten, children's zinging for candy and they walk with lampion's, but they don't wear costumes... so it's kinda dull compared with halloween.

What are your thoughts on Flash animation VS pencil? I was reading over some blogs posted by I'm guessing "Purest," animators. They seem to think that Flash is going cause animation to fall back into that 60s-80's world, where once again control of the director with be lost. They also stated that Flash has cheapen the quality of animation. I just wanted to read your thoughts on how you have involved through this tech-no age. If I'm right, you had the first Flash cartoons published on the web, and I see your toons and work as part of this moment in time of animation. Ken

WE WANT ALL THE MANUALS!! not just the layout manuals, but ALL of them!

i have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the next post that has something to do with your manuals so that i can DL them and print them, make copies at kinko's and then give multiple copies to my animation crew!

we may not be on the west coast, but we know good animation tips when we see them ( and there aren't many ). please upload more john!

also? HAPPY BIRTHDAY to mike! he's got such a funny voice and could've easily made a living doing cartoon voices.

Speaking for myself, I loved the layout post! It was super informative and really full of expressive ideas, which I will definitely put into practice in my own work. The only problem is, layout doesn't EXIST anymore! Atleast not in the sensible , though-out,straight-forward way you know it.Because of Flash and programs like it, storyboards are just imported into the computer, pre-existing Flash characters are lined up with them and that is used as the final template for the show!I'm working on a show right now that uses that very system, and I think for TV animation, it's virtually industry standard. The only way these valuable ideas will make it to any screen, is through independent shorts. So please keep this amazing and vital information coming, because its pretty hard to find people with this knowledge nowadays! Thank You John.

Every morning for a long time now after first checking to see if the world still exists as we know it I read your posts, even the layout stuff. I'm not an animator, I'm an oil painter and guitarist. I'm 53 so I can't really get into the full blown school of animation but for the fun of it I've always wanted to do an old school hand drawn cartoon, maybe a minute or two. When I saw your video lessons the other day I was amazed at the evolution of your site. Anyway, your blog is a treasure chest of history, technique, fundamentals, fun, etc. and a golden opportunity for more than animation so I sent my first PayPal donation. Thanks!

I love the layout posts more than anything in the whole world! I've been printing them and placing the pages in a binder. I'll try and comment more often... even though I don't comment in every single post, I assure you I visit and read your blog every day. I really only comment when I feel I have something useful to add to the discussion.

"(BTW, I just got a cool Heckle & Jeckle costume from 1957 - it came in the mail today."

i need get my name of mike's will. christ. the thought of the amount of awesome stuff this guy has. i wish this guy my brother or cousin or something. something that involves me checking out his cool toys & flinstones puzzles or whatever.

My favorite costume that I wore was Bingo, from the Banana Splits-- the last year I wore one--I was Dr. Strange... and tonight and tomorrow night I'm on stage as a Geico Caveman and George W. (I'm singing an Aerosmith parody-"Cheney's Got A Gun") and even Mitt Romney--for the annual Society of Professional Journalist's Gridiron Show---I'd rather wear one like these, and get candy--too!!

I am trying to locate a couple of vintage costumes my brother and I wore sometime in the early 80s. The costumes consisted of 2 pieces: A plastic sheath that went over your head and a giant blow up character head that tied under your neck. The front of the sheath had 6 different characters on it and the head would be one of those characters (like a bat or a pumpkin, etc.). Do you have ANY idea who made these &/or where I can locate them. I have checked on e-bay and all I can find there are the Spooktown and Ben Cooper costumes. Any assistance would be appreciated. :)